Mechanical Simulation has released 2018.0 versions of its vehicle dynamics simulation tools CarSim, TruckSim and BikeSim  featuring upgrades to integrated real-time ADAS sensors, programmable moving objects and computation speed, and an increase in the number of detection variables.

All three products feature vehicle math models that support multiple road surfaces and movement paths. The existing capability to build paths with straight lines, arcs, spirals and spline tables has been supplemented with three new tools.

Atlas, hosted by carsim.com, uses path data from mapping services including Google and Here  in the new version it now also includes elevation data for imported roads. Another option is a plug-in for Here’s ADAS Research Program and database. Then there is VS Scene Builder, a collection of user-interface tiles that users can drag and drop to assemble scenes with sophisticated 3D shapes and textures, ready for animation. Every scene has predefined points that can be used to generate paths.

“In the past decade, the importance of simulating the dynamic behaviour of vehicles has grown exponentially and is now an essential part of product development and testing,” said Dr Michael Sayers, CEO and chief technology officer at Mechanical Simulation.

“The range of simulated conditions have expanded from testing basic dynamic behaviour of the vehicle to running with built-in controllers in thousands or even millions of simulations to cover ADAS and autonomous driving scenarios.”